iPhone 4 Rival Alert : Samsung Wave 3 S8600 Down To £225

Those looking for a platform other than Android, iOS or Windows Phone may consider Samsung’s Bada OS and the Samsung Wave 3 S8600 handset whose price has been discounted by Expansys down to £225 from £300.

The phone is reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy W or R. It has a single core processor clocked at 1.4Ghz, a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen and encased in a 9.9mm brushed-metal anodized aluminium chassis.

Other features include Bada OS 2.0 operating system, a microSD card slot, 3GB internal storage, Wi-FI and Wi-FI direct, a five megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, Bluetooth, GPS, a microUSB port, 720p video plus Samsung’s own Social and Media hub.

One has to wonder whether the 25 per cent discount is linked to the fact that the long term future of Bada lies in a merger with the former Intel-backed Meego to spawn yet another platform called Tizen.

There has been an increasing number of smartphones available for around £200 pounds. The gamer-oriented Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the 3D-capable HTC Evo 3D and the Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 710 are all vying for that mainstream place.

Samsung will hold an event at the Mobile World Congress to reveal its future plans for Bada and how the merged Meego/Bada platform will evolve.